Miscellaneous Missives

"To the cyclist, and the sailor, there is never simply a 'wind.'  It's either a headwind, crosswind, or tailwind.  A headwind is worse than any mountain.  The mountain delivers tangible rewards:  a view at the summit and a downhill on the other side.  A stiff headwind drains you out of spite, simply to show you who's boss." Today my goal was to ride at least ten miles, so I could reach my goal of 2,500 miles by the end of summer (August).  It was difficult trying to figure out the difference between the headwind and crosswind since the wind was gusting at 25mph.  I was prepared for the 15mph wind, but the gusts were unfriendly.  It doesn't matter; my ride is complete as is my goal.  By the time winter comes, I should have 1,000 more miles than last year.

Have you ever taken a moment to read the Chipotle bag?  If you haven't, go to Chipotle and get take-out, so you have a bag to read.  Yesterday when I grabbed my burrito to put on my plate, I left the bag on the counter thinking I should take a closer look.  There's a story, Two-minute Spanglish con Mami , by Julia Alverez.  at the bottom is a link to their cultivating thought page.  It seems as though I'll need to eat at Chipotle more often to read all of the stories.

When my cycling pal and I were looking for an August cycling event, we found one sponsored by the Minneapolis Jaycees.   The beneficiaries of the ride were YouthLink MN , Art Buddies , and Bolder Options .  Before the ride started and during the ride, we had an opportunity to talk with people from these organizations.  It is nice to participated in an event that gives back to the community. We chose the 30 mile ride knowing that our ride would be 40 miles since we were biking in to Darby's Pub from my house.  Most of the ride was familiar because it includes the trails that we typically ride.  As we headed west, I told J that we were riding the circle backwards.  We had followed the arrow giving us direction.  I was referring to the fact that we typically ride in the opposite direction.  Five miles down the trail, we came upon the final stop and decided to check the directions.  It seems the beginning of the directions were incorrect...

Although this video has little to do with my post, I'm a fan, and I think it's intelligent. As I walked into Whole Foods tonight, Black Lives Matter was protesting in the front of the store and its aisles.  They were loud and unintelligible.  I, of course, support Black Lives Matter, but I had no idea why they were at Whole Foods or what, specifically, they were protesting.  I thought that someone would hand me a paper or stop and explain what was happening.  If their message had been supported with some intelligent conversation (written or oral), I would have been supportive.  Unfortunately, I left confused at their purpose.  It also reminded me of how black stereotypes continue because of the actions of a select few.  When I arrived home, I googled to find answers.  It seems their protests in Whole Foods stems from an incident at a Whole Foods in Baltimore .  When I talk about the importance of English Language Arts this year, I will me...

Today was the first day back at school.  It's workshop week, and it really stresses me out.  Honestly, today shouldn't have been horrible because we had a lot of time to work in our room, but I still was crabby to quite crabby.  The good news is that I bought hard candy yesterday when I stopped at Candyland .  It sat on my desk.  I took candy after candy.  As five or six wrappers piled up on my desk, I went to the garbage can.  Repeat!  I even have some left to get me through tomorrow.

I'm getting zero accomplished.  Next week I'll need to work my ass off because I haven't prepared my self for the school year.  What have I been doing?  Well, today I've been drinking coffee and watching the Today Show.  Seriously?!  Yep, it's a ridiculous waste of my time.  Quite frankly, I could be working on my Google presentations while watching, but I'm geeking on the internet.  They showed this great video of a cockatoo singing the "ooooh" part of Nelly's Dilemma .  Although I've tried many Google searches, I haven't been able to find it.  They also showed a video of bears in the pool.  Perhaps it's time for me to get ready for my lunch date.

I don't need to try on last year's jeans to know they won't fit, so today I went to the outlet mall to buy jeans and clothes for school.   I hate shopping.  Last year my jeans from the previous year fit, so I did't buy new clothes. Although I am buying a larger size of jeans, I'm not throwing the others out.  MyFitnessPal and I are going to start hanging out September 1st.  Anyway, I bought a couple of skirts, a couple new shirts, and a couple pairs of jeans while I was at the outlet mall.  Later in the day I stopped by Target to see if I could save money on jeans.  I bought two pairs which means the others will need to go back to the outlet mall.  Plus, I bought a bag of Sixlets from the dollar shelves.  It seems they're almost gone, but it's OK since it's not September 1st yet.  Ignoring a bag of Sixlets for a dollar seems downright wrong.  Plus, I found a cute dress at Target.